I've been toying with ideas for how to complete X-Wing's complement of Battle of Yavin pilots for a while now, and the other thread about new pilot ideas has prompted me to finish it. I believe the following should cover the remaining pilots who got screen time - even just briefly:

"Backstabber"

Darth Vader's other wingman, and the one who does precisely nothing the entire fight until he's killed outta nowhere by Han. Mauler at least managed to kill Red 10 and damage Wedge's engine.

I wanted to make use of the new arcs and make Backstabber more specifically in the back than his 1e ability, but unfortunately, Graz the Hunter now has his ideal ability (anywhere behind the defender). So I've had to resort to rear arc only; no more triggering from the side for him.

Has a talent slot. Cost is probably around the 29 point mark

"Dark Curse"

"I can't shake him!"

The fourth member of Black Squadron, and famously the one Luke has a tussle with until Wedge bails his scrub *** out. I've given him an upgrade over 1e so that the Force doesn't work on him either, to keep him a tricky opponent for Luke.

No talent slot, 27 points.

Davish "Pops" Krail

"Stay on Target"

This one's totally new, having (for some strange reason) never made it into 1e.

His ability is pure fluff. He yells at anyone near him to stay on target. It works, but it also stresses them out (see Dutch's panicking in ANH). He obviously pairs really nicely with Dutch, as he lets both of them get fully modded attacks at I5, but in keeping with Rebel design philosophy his ability is basically useless if he's by himself.

Has a talent slot, 42 points (at the current Y-Wing pricing anyway).

Dex Tiree

"The guns, they've stopped"

Another pilot conspicuously missing from both editions, Tiree is famously the first pilot to die without doing anything in the trench run. I wanted a Y-Wing pilot who had a reason to take devices, but devices are rather tricky to build abilities around - there's only so much you can do that isn't timing related. I initially thought about letting him do a red reload after dropping a device, so that he can get it for free if he dials in a blue that turn, but it seemed a bit too limited in use. This one also vaguely references his dialogue at least - when the guns aren't shooting at him, he gets to do a thing.

Either has a talent slot and costs 36 points, or doesn't and costs 34 - I can't decide.

John D. Branon

"Who?"

Famous for only appearing the brief second it takes for him to say "I'm hit" and then explode, Branon is also notable for his fetching all crimson helmet (that clashes horribly with his orange flight suit) and for being credited without his surname (he's just 'John D' in the credits). But he gets screen time, and he completes the run of Reds 1-6 so I say let's get him in the game.

I initially thought about an ability that makes him liable to explode if shot from behind in exchange for some benefit, but at this point I was bored of tying abilities to what happens on screen, so I instead tried to think of a way that might make a low Initiative X-Wing worth playing. Basically, he works best if he's ignored by the other player and gets to shoot last.

I'm currently thinking no talent slot, and he comes in aggressively costed at 42 points. I want people to have a reason to bring him. Probably with Garven, who he's broadly designed to work well with.

And finally...

Theron Nett

"We should be able to see him [in the game] by now"

Garven Dreis' ill-fated trench run wingmate, and the X-Wing pilot with the most screen time behind Garven, Biggs, Wedge and Luke (yes, he probably has more than Porkins). He's got a LEGO figure , he should definitely be in the game.

Theron is designed from first principles to be a wingman for Garven. He wants Garven's extra focus. He's also designed around fluff principles - he's stronger in defence if he has Garven around feeding him focus tokens. Unfortunately, during the trench run he "came in a little loose" and was at range 2 of Garven while Mauler Mithel was "right behind [him]" and Mauler got his extra range 1 dice, killing poor Theron pretty speedily.

Has a talent slot, 45 points.

Let me know your thoughts. Feedback is very welcome, even if it's just on wording. My game time is pretty limited at the moment, but I'm hoping to get them all involved in a 400 point Battle of Yavin game towards the end of the month. I'll try and remember to take pics if and when it happens, and return some testing date.

Also, does anyone know if there's a good way of doing second edition upgrade cards? I've got some ideas for Red Squadron astromechs that I'd like to add as a follow up to this at some point.

Given their shared artwork and general ineptitude, I suspect "Backstabber" may be Valen Rudor. Getting Dark Curse in would be nice, though.

These are delightfully well designed. I love them. I would legitimately fly those Y-Wings and X-Wings and I'm sad I can't use them this weekend (my first actual tournament).

These are great!

My only suggestion would be changing Davish's ability range to 1, as I'm having trouble thinking of a circumstance where he could fully execute a maneuver and be range 0. I could be wrong though.

11 hours ago, GuacCousteau said:

"came in a little loose"

These are all great; and I'd love to see this expansion!

I'm just going to knitpick this quote though. What Theron says is "you'd better let her loose" to Garven, as in get your shot off because I can't hold them much longer.

But, back to the praise. This is awesome and FFG, if you're reading this, get these pilots in the game. Why Pops has never appeared, with some sort of TL-based ability has always surprised me.

43 minutes ago, stuffedskullcat said:

These are great!

My only suggestion would be changing Davish's ability range to 1, as I'm having trouble thinking of a circumstance where he could fully execute a maneuver and be range 0. I could be wrong though.

Its entirely possible but unlikely.

(Reading the thread title, I was hoping this was an ffg article..)

These are awesome. They need to combine this with a Rogue One pilot expansion.

19 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Given their shared artwork and general ineptitude, I suspect "Backstabber" may be Valen Rudor. Getting Dark Curse in would be nice, though.

If Backstabber's ability ain't shooting someone in the back, he ain't Backstabber s'far as I'm concerned.

It's a nice idea though. Although is Backstabber really all that inept? Mauler's the one who crashes into Vader, after all, and that seems more like a Valen Rudor move to me. Backstabber just doesn't do anything.

I'm more inclined to believe FFG just reused artwork to swap a Legends pilot for a canon one, just as they did for Iden and Seyn.

18 hours ago, Kehl_Aecea said:

These are delightfully well designed. I love them. I would legitimately fly those Y-Wings and X-Wings and I'm sad I can't use them this weekend (my first actual tournament).

Thanks. There are things that almost always bug me about seeing people's homebrew ideas, like overpowered or unbalanced abilities brought on to be trying to be unique and interesting, or using non standard language. I tried really hard to make these abilities solid, usable and fluffy without making them much more powerful than your average B-tier pilot. I also referenced a crap ton of similar abilities to make sure the language I used was consistent with FFG's (at least, as consistent as they manage to be themselves - YMMV, obviously), and even threw out some abilities when I couldn't word them simplistically with FFG's structure.

So hopefully I delivered on that goal.

10 hours ago, stuffedskullcat said:

These are great!

My only suggestion would be changing Davish's ability range to 1, as I'm having trouble thinking of a circumstance where he could fully execute a maneuver and be range 0. I could be wrong though.

Deploy Pops and Dutch side by side at the start of the game, with the sides of their bases touching. Have both dial in and execute a two straight. No one overlaps, both maneuvers complete but the two ships are still at range 0 of each other by the 2e rules.

It's really not that hard to engineer a situation where two ships are at range 0 but haven't overlapped. How often you might actually choose to do it deliberately is a different question, but I didn't want that to be something that deactivates the ability for the sake of two characters in the ability text.

10 hours ago, Dr Zoidberg said:

These are all great; and I'd love to see this expansion!

I'm just going to knitpick this quote though. What Theron says is "you'd better let her loose" to Garven, as in get your shot off because I can't hold them much longer.

But, back to the praise. This is awesome and FFG, if you're reading this, get these pilots in the game. Why Pops has never appeared, with some sort of TL-based ability has always surprised me.

Well ****, I've been hearing that wrong for 20 years....

Thanks for correcting me. I guess the ability doesn't make quite as much sense now, but ah well. Still works from a 'wingman for Garven' perspective, I guess.

5 hours ago, Phelan Boots said:

(Reading the thread title, I was hoping this was an ffg article..)

Yep, I realised shortly after posting that it might sound a little like an announcement article title.

Sorry if that makes it a bit clickbaity.

5 hours ago, Phelan Boots said:

These are awesome. They need to combine this with a Rogue One pilot expansion.

Yeah, I'm thinking of doing a Rogue One set next.

Currently on the block are General Merrick, Barion Raner and Jaldine Gerams in X-Wings; K-2SO and Laren Joma in U-Wings.

There's a couple of pilots seen in the battle with pretty fabulous moustaches (one in Blue Squadron, one in Red) , and I'd love to include one to pair with Merrick to make the unofficial moustache expansion, but unfortunately neither have names yet. On the other hand, there are lots of pilots with photos and names in the visual guide, but you don't actually see any of them in the battle, so I'm not so interested in them. There's Vangos Grek, who both appears and has a name, but he's just the guy who piledrives straight into the Scarif shield gate, so I don't really feel like he's a character worth playing. Ditto Pedrin Gaul (the other Red 5), who would essentially just be a joke character.

10 hours ago, GuacCousteau said:

<snap>

Deploy Pops and Dutch side by side at the start of the game, with the sides of their bases touching. Have both dial in and execute a two straight. No one overlaps, both maneuvers complete but the two ships are still at range 0 of each other by the 2e rules.

It's really not that hard to engineer a situation where two ships are at range 0 but haven't overlapped. How often you might actually choose to do it deliberately is a different question, but I didn't want that to be something that deactivates the ability for the sake of two characters in the ability text.

<snip>

Ah! Thank you.

On a side note... With what program did you make these cards? I'm assuming it isn't Strange Eons seeing as you are using symbols I can't seem to find anywhere...?

Amazing cards!!

Suggestion: if you want to make Backstabber really evil, and make if more different than Graz, make it add 1 [hit] or even 1 [crit], instead of rolling 1 more die.

On 4/9/2019 at 11:30 AM, Magnus Grendel said:

Given their shared artwork and general ineptitude, I suspect "Backstabber" may be Valen Rudor. Getting Dark Curse in would be nice, though.

Valen Rudor retired and had became the operator of an officer's club on Lothal before the Death Star was completed.

I like this a lot. I have minor suggestions however.

To differentiate Backstabber from Graz, I'd say make it the full back arc (like Graz), but instead of rolling another die, just add a Focus result.

For Dark Curse (who I really liked in 1st Ed), change it to the attacker cannot modify focus results. Blocking both modifying eyeballs and rerolls seems harsh in our new environment. Disallowing modification of eyeball results still disallows rerolling them, as well, so you still have that effect somewhat in there.

John D. Branon seems very strong. There is lot of conditionals in there, but provided they are met, statistically he should be getting 3 hit results most of the time. Only double blanks and triple blanks will net him less. Firing at I2 however, he is likely to spend that focus, so it balances out. No suggestion here, just commentary.

Overall, very solid. Not that Wes Jansen actually flew at Yavin, but he was there, can we add him in?

2 hours ago, Jaden Corr said:

On a side note... With what program did you make these cards? I'm assuming it isn't Strange Eons seeing as you are using symbols I can't seem to find anywhere...?

It is indeed Strange Eons.

The symbols are all there in the markup; if you hit the purple question mark on any of the tabs in the X-Wing 2.0 plugin, it'll take you to a help page. There's a link on there for all of the markup you'll need for the symbols.

47 minutes ago, 5050Saint said:

I like this a lot. I have minor suggestions however.

To differentiate Backstabber from Graz, I'd say make it the full back arc (like Graz), but instead of rolling another die, just add a Focus result.

For Dark Curse (who I really liked in 1st Ed), change it to the attacker cannot modify focus results. Blocking both modifying eyeballs and rerolls seems harsh in our new environment. Disallowing modification of eyeball results still disallows rerolling them, as well, so you still have that effect somewhat in there.

John D. Branon seems very strong. There is lot of conditionals in there, but provided they are met, statistically he should be getting 3 hit results most of the time. Only double blanks and triple blanks will net him less. Firing at I2 however, he is likely to spend that focus, so it balances out. No suggestion here, just commentary.

Overall, very solid. Not that Wes Jansen actually flew at Yavin, but he was there, can we add him in?

This is all great feedback, thanks.

I'm not sure I'd want to make Backstabber's ability just Graz's but better, though. If it had the same arc allowance but added a specific, controllable result that's exactly what it would be.

I might consider changing him to add the focus result, but he'd have to stay rear arc for that. That would be the tradeoff vs Graz - Backstabber gets a better dice modification, but a smaller area to trigger it from. I've also come to really like Backstabber actually having to be fully behind his target and not just at the side but offset back enough. The more I think about it, the more I think rear arc only best suits a guy named Backstabber.

Good suggestion on how to differentiate it from Graz a bit more, though. I might up his cost and make the change.

Yeah, you're probably right about Dark Curse. I wanted to straight port him from 1st edition, but I think you're right that my intention to make him work against the Force as well has actually significantly changed and buffed that ability. And you're right that new phrasing also means that eyeballs can't be re-rolled anyway.

I'm probably going to drop the re-roll restriction based on that. I agree it's probably better balanced.

Yeah, you're right. John is strong and it was - to a point - by design. Any new pilot for the T-65 immediately arrives in a competitive space. There's already a ton of pilots, and Wedge and Luke are very strong, and Biggs has a ton of utility.. You really need a good reason to take anyone else. I want more I2 pilots on the table, and I think they need good abilities to make that happen.

I wanted John to be something of a Rebel version of Wampa - a low Initiative pilot who shoots last, but will punish you if you ignore him.

I am starting to wonder if maybe he is a shade too strong, though. You're right that his ability probably gives him the most reliable 3 hits in the game outside of Vader, and that in general FFG tend to shy away from free hit results in 2e.

Would maybe changing his ability to "While you perform an attack, if the defender does not have any green tokens you may spend a focus token to turn 1 <blank> into 1 <hit>" be better?

It means he's still a consistent shot, and it's essentially the same requirements, but now the only way to get 3 hits is if you roll 2 of them or roll all paint. It also makes him an even better choice to pair with Garven, because now you might want John to focus and then Garven to give him a second token in case you roll an eye and a blank.

1 hour ago, Odanan said:

Amazing cards!!

Suggestion: if you want to make Backstabber really evil, and make if more different than Graz, make it add 1 [hit] or even 1 [crit], instead of rolling 1 more die.

Thanks

As I mentioned above, I'm not really a fan of giving out free hit results, and doing that for John D was probably a mistake. I don't think its a modification FFG tend to let pilots have.

I do think adding a focus result might be alright, though. Not only does it differentiate him a bit further from Graz, it also differentiates him from fellow TIE pilots Mauler and Wampa.

To differentiate backstabber from Graz...just give him his first Ed ability!

Great job, OP! These are super thematic and well-designed. I'm pretty picky with what fan-made stuff I get behind, but all of these make a solid case, especially the Y-Wings. I would play them all happily.

2 hours ago, 5050Saint said:

To differentiate Backstabber from Graz, I'd say make it the full back arc (like Graz), but instead of rolling another die, just add a Focus result. 

You know, at I3 it's hard enough to get in that rear arc, I wonder...

What if you did keep it to the /\ arc, but instead of rolling an additional die, what if you added a hit result, or a crit if in bullseye? Maybe OP. Make him I1-2 and it shouldn't proc too often. I like abilities that are hard to get but reward you well for landing them.

4 hours ago, theBitterFig said:

Valen Rudor retired and had became the operator of an officer's club on Lothal before the Death Star was completed.

Rudor was given Old Jho's place when he was arrested, but he was running it for the empire. I don't think he ever specifically said he'd retired. More to the point, he would probably have been pulled off Lothal during the imperial evacuation, which was also before the death star was completed.

23 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Rudor was given Old Jho's place when he was arrested, but he was running it for the empire. I don't think he ever specifically said he'd retired. More to the point, he would probably have been pulled off Lothal during the imperial evacuation, which was also before the death star was completed.

Maybe if he managed to get on a transport/shuttle. However, if he was evacuated inside of the dome, he would have died, wouldn't he?